Disneyland and Fear of elevators

The benefits of early reading can be great and sometimes cause a little more trouble than expected. For instance, Mark took Margo to Costco to purchase their dinner while I shopped. She read the sign...meaning, "Dad, I want the the hand dripped chocolate ice cream please." Of course she got it, because she read it, and dripped versus dipped was not too far off. Heck I would love a hand dripped chocolate ice cream too...sort of reminds me of my candle making days.

Monday we drove down to Anaheim and the Worldmark Anaheim Hotel, which is about a 20 minute walk from Disneyland. It only took us 7 hours to drive here, and yes we had several stops. Now Margo had no complaints what so ever during this part of the trip. She drew pictures, made grandmanma and grandpapa a card, drew a landscape, played with the etch-o-sketch and even her 'my little ponies'. Not a single whine out of her. An amazing feet for a 5 year old I would say. But then, she really was excited to go to Disneyland.

Back to the fear of early reading....we are staying on the 10th floor. Yes I said 10th floor, and no I did not opt to take the stairs. After our first elevator ride up, little Margo started talking about taking the stairs. What is she thinking? Then she started talking about fire's in the elevator, and how scared she was to ride the elevator, because we are supposed to take the stairs to avoid the fire. Where is she getting all these crazy ideas. Ahh it is that early reading I mentioned earlier. You all know the sign, in case of fire do not take the elevator but use the stairs. She was reading this sign, and decided since it was posted, fires must happen all the time in elevators. Thus her request to take the stairs at this hotel.

Today was our second day at Disneyland, and Margo had passed the test of doing the daring rides, so we brought her to the 'Hollywood Hotel'. I figured she would enjoy the drop zone of the activity. She said she wanted to go, so Mark took her. (I was not taking any ride that was fast, Mark was in charge of those types of adventures.) I sent them up the stairs to the entrance to the Hollywood Hotel, and that was that. I observed the sides of the building opening with screams of riders coming out the building. Oh what fun that drop can be...but wait, what if little Margo undid her seat belt in the midst of the drop. Would she know, not to touch it once it was set. Panic set in, and I ran to the entrance to find out about the safety of this ride. Ok, they assured me she would be fine. I sort of relaxed, and found the exit to the ride was a gift shop on the bottom floor of the ride. I went in, and discovered the experience takes about 25 minutes or so because they meander through the 'scary story of the twilight zone'. I know I screwed up, she will never want to ride an elevator again and I will be stuck walking the 10 flights of stairs with her at the hotel. What was I thinking encouraging her to go on this ride. Heck I saw other little girls younger than Margo go on the ride. But they were not Margo, with her big imagination.

Little Margo exited the gift store telling me, "Mommy, I will never, ever, ever, ever, never ever, ever ride that elevator again!" Then she proceeds to tell me all about the twilight zone, and being taken out of this world into another world...etc...etc...etc... Bottom line it was very scary. Now what do I do? I decide to encourage her to talk about this ride all day long. Yes whenever she brought it up I would listen and hope she would talk the fear of riding the elevator right out of her. We took her on simpler rides, which she enjoyed, and then she would talk about the Hollywood Hotel. Prior to leaving California Adventure, she wanted to go back and take a picture of the Hollywood Hotel, which had been struck by lightening and yes she would tell me the story again. We ended with the soaring above California flight, which she loved. I loved that ride too. And bit by bit, as she talked about the scary elevator ride, we would tell her how brave she was to go on the ride. And then we would tell her our hotel would not be struck by lightening, and that our elevators were not broken or in another world.

Right now, Margo plans on drawing a picture of the very scary Hollywood Hotel elevator ride, to show all her friends, so they will 'Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ride that elevator'. And thank goodness she has been distracted about the fire and elevators, because of the twilight zone, she visited today. Now we don't need to walk up the 10 flights of stairs to our room. At least as long as there is no lightening. If there is lightening, we may have a problem with staying at any hotel with elevators.